When my wife begins to brag on me, to me, I figure she wants something; when I hear her bragging on me to others, I figure she loves me. I’m only half joking; being autistic, I have trouble experiencing the feeling of being loved. However I have overheard my wife speaking well of me to others, and it caused me to experience an inner awareness that she truly cares for me. That assurance is a good feeling.

God is not autistic, and when we sing praises to him because we love him, he knows if it is genuine. He also knows if we are only praising him because we want or need something from him. I’m not making the accusation that all Christian praise is self-serving. However, I think most of us would admit that sometimes our praise to God is a preliminary, leading up to a presentation, of a petition. When we sincerely love and adore God, our praise should never be the first step to asking for things.

Deborah sang a song of praise. It is amazing what a difference a little two letter word can make. Verse three says “I, even I, will sing __ the Lord “. The missing word can be both “of” and “to”. There is absolutely nothing in the context to tell the translator which word to choose, yet close to 90% of all English translations choose the word “to”. Understanding praise as only something we offered to God is limiting Christian praise.

I believe Deborah intended to say that she was going to sing praises “of” God; it makes a difference. She told the kings, including the enemies of Israel and the rulers of foreign lands to listen to her song. She was not singing to God, she was singing to the enemies as well as the children of God. She was singing her praises of God to the world.

Our most meaningful praises are not what we say to God in church, but what we say about God, outside of church.